MIIS students brainstorm ideas for Fort Ord

Does it take students from as far away as Vermont to foster peaceful progress at Ford Ord? Perhaps.

Like a United Nations negotiating detente between developers and environmentalists, students at the Monterey Institute of International Studies last week wrapped up an assignment to define an entrepreneurial project that could bring stakeholders together for the benefit of Fort Ord.

For Kent Glenzer, the instructor for the intersession class for students from MIIS and Vermont's Middlebury College, the idea was to address one of the county's "wicked problems," where changing and competing interests present seemingly impossible solutions. With environmentalists opposing projects that could bring economic development, the former Army base posed the perfect platform.

Knowing his students could not "solve the problem" in just three weeks, their challenge was to find a promising idea that could begin building new relationships and dialogues.

Four teams responded, attacking problems ranging from blight to joblessness. The ideas, impressively fleshed out for the time available, were presented at a competition Jan. 18.

One idea was to establish a regional foundation to judge a national competition for designs to replace dilapidated buildings on the former Army base.

Another team figured a three-day party might produce a cease-fire. The Festival at the Fort over Memorial Day Weekend would be a combination of music, food, informational and educational booths and outdoor activities. It would require planning from all sides.

Two proposals rose to the top for the judges, using criteria of the idea's feasibility and its power to begin a breakthrough and build new relationships.

The first was a plan to provide public access from the west side of the base to the new Fort Ord National Monument. Located at a now vacant and relatively bleak area off the Jerry Smith Corridor near Abrams Drive and Imjin Road, the "Riders Respite" calls for parking for 200 vehicles, a visitor center with bike rentals and a tent-camping village providing a jumping-off point for the monument President Barack Obama established in April.

Team member Grant Nishioka, a Middlebury student from Wayland, Mass., said the plan would have a minor impact on water and habitat while helping bring visitors to the area. The location on county land would allow the Board of Supervisors to put out a request for proposals from companies to build and run the site.

"It's making it more of a destination people want to visit," he said, "... to bring awareness to the beauty that is in your backyard here."

The winning team took the competition from simplicity to big-picture grand: Next Gen Vocational Academy, a business-backed, skills-training center that would address job creation and low graduation rates in Monterey County.

MIIS student Celena Aponte of Los Angeles said there are many fields that are in need of skilled labor, and many high school students who would be more interested in a vocational certificate rather than a two- or four-year degree. Bringing the two together, and creating middle-income jobs, is the proposal's goal.

Aponte said she and her colleagues first looked at research jobs but recognized that had been tried, so far unsuccessfully, by the UC Monterey Bay Education, Science and Technology Center (MBEST).

"We wanted to create action ... on the ground level," she said, adding that the group's idea has already gotten support from Hartnell College.

Hoping that someone at the county level would take the ball and run with it, Aponte said the first plan of action would be reaching out to the business community for a needs assessment. Among the ideas presented at the competition were training in green energy, commercial cooking, gray-water systems and even mobile slaughterhouses.

While MBEST so far has created few jobs for the community, which was the original plan, it could provide a site for the academy, the team said.

The academy and Rider's Respite were neck-and-neck favorites of the judges, including this reporter. In the end, the academy team won for its presentation, which included a tongue-in-cheek musical assessment of the issues at the Fort Ord Reuse Authority.

Monterey County Supervisor and FORA Director Jane Parker, whose chief of staff, Kristi Markey, also sat on the panel, said the students' achievements, in just three weeks, were hugely impressive.

"I just think it's remarkable. In a very short time, these students sorted through a lot of issues and came up with ideas that really work for the community," she said. "Both of the top two ideas have potential to get broad support in the community ... but particularly the two coming together expresses a range of desires we keep hearing from the community: 'We want jobs and we want access to the trails on Fort Ord.'"

Aponte said she and other students who are remaining in Monterey while their Middlebury colleagues return to school hope to continue pursuing their ideas.